BATHINDA: Ferozepur MP Sher Singh Ghubaya has taken up the matter of readjustment and adding new assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies in view of the addition of 84 new castes in SC and ST categories in 14 states in the country.He raised the matter during Zero Hour in the ongoing session of Parliament on Thursday.These castes — 19 castes among SC and 65 castes among ST — spread across the country were added from 2002 to 2012 through 11 bills passed by the Parliament.Ghubaya said with the inclusion of these castes into the SC/ST categories, the population of these castes had increased rapidly which necessitated addition of 37 assembly and nine parliamentary constituencies for SC/ ST.The SAD MP has also written a demi-official (DO) letter to the Union law and justice minister Ravi Shankar Prasad about the matter. He also met vice-chairperson of the National Commission for ST on Thursday and is scheduled to meet the chairperson of the commission on Saturday. He has also raised matter before the National Commission for the SC.“Through a notification in 2014, the Election Commission of India (ECI) had reserved two assembly constituencies in Uttar Pradesh for ST and the process to reserve five assembly seats in Sikkim is in the final stages. But other states including Punjab are still waiting for it. Punjab has the largest percentage of SC population in the country,” said Ghubaya.Ghubaya has stressed the need to increase assembly seats reserved for SC in Punjab from 34 to 36. He said, “Presently, there are 34 seats reserved for SC with a population of 28.9% as per the 2001 Census. However, the population of SC in Punjab has increased to 31.9% as per the 2011 Census due to which two additional seats are need to be reserved for the community.”He said three assembly segments of Guru Har Sahai, Jalalabad and Fazilka have the maximum population of SC in Punjab at 58%, 57% and 50%, respectively. “Despite that all three are general seats whereas other 31 segments which have less SC population are reserved for the community which need to be corrected by readjustment,” said Ghubaya.

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